AMANDA RICHARDSON
Nexus (Camosun College)

VICTORIA (CUP) — Layered to the point that we look like Ralphie from A Christmas Story, my friend Erin Ball and I took to the ice to learn the nitty-gritty of curling.

As a longtime fan and first-time curler, I had a fairly decent idea of what I was getting myself into with our daylong learn-to-curl session. Ball, however, did not.

We lined up along the boards of Vancouver Island’s Esquimalt Curling Club, doing the sort of cold-quiver that one gets when suddenly moving in from a balmy fall day to the chilly temperatures of a curling rink.

Our new coaches, Ed Gerhardt, Kim Hall, Cameron de Jong and Richelle Perry stood like stoic pros next to us Bambi-like amateurs. There were roughly 30 of us, ranging in age from my mere 22 years to a retiree with six grandchildren.

Skeptically, we stepped onto the pebbled ice, in obvious shock that we weren’t all promptly thrown on our asses. We were equipped with brooms, nerves of steel and cold noses. We were ready to get our curl on.

The back line

The first written account of the sport dates back to 1541 in Scotland, with curling stones found in the area in 1511. Canada has been a regular contender on the international scene for some time, having won the first-ever world championship in 1959 in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Canada is also home to the Royal Montreal Curling Club, established in 1807, which is the oldest active sports club in North America.

While the 2010 Winter Olympics shone a new light on an old sport, bringing international attention to the underdog of the sporting world, curling has a devoted following of fans and players that take to the ice every September with an arsenal of brooms, stones and sliders.

For those unfamiliar with the sport, curling is a game between two teams, each with four players. The skip, who acts as the team leader and plays director, calls the shots for the rest of the team. Each player gets two stones, alternating turns between the two teams, beginning with the leads.

The objective is to slide your team’s rocks closest to the button, knocking and blocking the other team’s stones in order to win.

Curling has a bad reputation of being an old-boy’s sport filled with whiskey-drinking retirees and middle-aged men that couldn’t cut it as hockey players.

However, the truth is that curling is a legitimate sport, not just for old men, but also for women and people of all ages.

The hog line

Gerhardt, a coach and past president of the Esquimalt Curling Club, said that one of his greatest pleasures in life is teaching new generations about the sport he loves.

“School kids come in, for gym or what have you, and I’ve been an instructor with the Special Olympic team for the past 11 years,” Gerhardt said. “With the kids, we have all these preconceived notions about what they can do. You forget what it’s like to be a beginner.”

Gerhardt typically instructs the kids for an hour, and they play an actual game at the end of the lesson for about 20 minutes.

“They really have so much fun sliding around,” he said. “But if I had to choose to do one thing for the rest of my life, it’d be to work with these Special Olympic guys. This is what I really love doing.”

2007 Brier and World Champions Brent Laing and Rich Hart, second and third respectively for Ontario’s Team Howard, both began curling at a young age, but say that it’s not uncommon to start later in life.

“I started when I was nine years old,” Laing said. “My parents were curlers, and I grew up in Meaford, Ont., which is a small community where curling is a part of a lot of families’ lives. We also curled in public school in Grade 3 as part of our gym curriculum.”

“I started curling when I was 13,” Hart added, “because it’s a fun sport and a great way to meet people. If you concentrate on those two things, you’ll get the most out of the sport.”

The champion curlers explained that once new players learn the strategy of the game, they can improve very rapidly.

“Like in any sport, starting early makes it easier to be successful as an adult, but there is no reason that an adult beginner can’t make it to the Brier or Scotties [curling tournaments] someday,” Laing noted. “The thing in curling that takes the longest is the understanding of the strategy involved in the game.”

Strategy is where a good skip comes in. A seasoned skip can call line, weight and angles, but all need to be able to see where the stones will hit and the chain reaction of where the other stones will spill.

More important than physics, however, a good skip needs to be a leader and motivator.

“In general, the skip is someone who enjoys being a leader and making most of the decisions for the team,” Laing said.

“Usually the skips are a little different. The rest of us are normal,” Hart laughed. “All joking aside, the great skips usually have the ability and self-confidence…when no one else does, even their own team. It’s that self-confidence that stands them apart from the rest.”

Gerhardt also said that patience is the key to being a good skip.

“The last thing a skip should do is chastise their team,” he explained. “They’re there as a leader and to keep them all together. The last thing you want is for them to start screaming at the team. Even better if they can teach and instruct the team while they’re at it.”

Team Howard, in its current configuration, has been together for the past seven seasons. As Laing and Hart can attest, team dynamics are crucial in curling. Finding each player’s strengths makes for happier individuals and a more competitive team.

“A decade ago, you’d come into a club and you’d have to pay your dues on a new team,” Gerhardt said. “You’d start at lead, then second and work your way up. But now things have changed with the free-guard zone. The lead is no longer the weakest link. In fact, if you don’t have a good lead, you’re not going to win many games.”

Leads are now coveted for their finesse and ability to tick a rock without removing it from play. Laing explained that certain positions can throw their rocks out of order to better utilize individual player’s strengths.

“The skip is just the name for the person who calls the game for a team. They hold the broom for the other players. It doesn’t necessarily mean that they throw the last two rocks,” Laing explained. “This is done on certain teams because some players are better at calling the game, reading the ice and knowing the strategy of the game.

“Another reason is that some players are stronger sweepers so having them call the game from the house is wasting skills that can benefit the team.”

The tee-line

With well-established positions and a tried-and-true team format, Team Howard is setting their sights on this year’s bigger tournaments.

“I am focused on getting to Sochi, Russia, in 2014 [for the Winter Olympics],” Laing said. “Our team goal this year is to get back to the Brier and win it, then go on to win the world championship.”

They will be battling against Canada’s other top teams for points to get into the Brier, which will be in London, Ont., this March.

Team Howard’s main competition will be 2010 Olympic gold medalist Kevin Martin and 2010 World Champion Kevin Koe, both from Edmonton, and 2006 Olympic gold-medallist Brad Gushue of Newfoundland.

With so much hype surrounding Team Martin and their Olympic win, Gerhardt said that he’s seen a peak in interest in curling from young adults.
According to him, the best way to get started is with a beginner’s clinic.

“There aren’t that many happening in Victoria, but they’re around from time to time,” Gerhardt explained. “If someone is really keen, they can come down to a club and ask about private sessions. There are a couple of coaches that do that at every club.”

The learning curve with curling is steep, but Gerhardt said it’s important to not get discouraged. Pulled muscles are a hazard of the trade, but happen less frequently as skill and fitness improve. The key is just to get to a rink and start trying.

“Curling is a game that you can play your whole life. You can start when you’re eight and play till you’re 80,” Hart said. “It’s never too late to start, so get out and give it a try. I’ve never met anyone who regretted starting.”

The button
Curling begins in the hack — the rubber foot-holes on either end of the sheet of ice. The curler puts his or her dominant foot in the hack, while your weak foot, ironically, is the one that supports your body weight when you lurch forward, hurling 40 pounds of granite towards a painted bulls-eye 150 feet away.

I learned something that day: At some point in my life, my centre of balance relocated itself to my ass.

I’ve never claimed to be the most co-ordinated person on earth, but this was truly a sight to be seen. Ball, the epitome of beginner’s luck, was a little steadier at the start, but wasn’t far behind when it came to spectacular wipeouts and pulled muscles.

After a brief curling sweeping tutorial, covering everything from open and closed techniques, to impact on the speed and direction of rocks, we began to perfect our delivery techniques to varying degrees of success.

Three hours and a much-needed coffee break later, we were ready to scrimmage. We teamed up with two random guys from the group to form a veritable dream team.

The guys took lead and second, while I went to the skip and Ball rocked as my trusty third. We quickly learned that brooms and sliders do not make a curler, but rather serve as a means to trip, stumble and slide your way up and down an ice corridor.

After three gruelling ends, we slaughtered our opponents 2”“1. Our victory, peppered with Hail Mary shots and rookie mistakes, was sweet all the same.

High fives and gentlemanly handshakes capped off the game, making official our place as the learn-to-curl champions of the afternoon.

– –
image: LeeLeFever/Flickr